Please Get the Door

    I have come to believe over the past week that everything in my daily routine is incredibly hard and more difficult over here. And for that reason I was unable to open a door today.
 I needed to return our signed rental contract to a local real estate broker in downtown. So I walked into Kaiserswerth determined that everything was going to go extremely smooth. I found the firm, double checked the address, and pulled on the door...nothing. I tried again it did not budge. Several people were inside, so I stood there and waited for them to buzz me in... nothing. After several rather embarrassing minutes I held up my papers so they could see I had business inside.....nothing. Finally a young man got up from his desk and came to the door and opened it with ease. It was a PUSH not a PULL I had stood out in the cold mist looking pathetic because I thought something was harder than it really was.
Don't make something harder than it really is

View on the way

Homeless, Broke, and Hungry

Please forgive me McDonalds for anything negative I have ever said against you.
When we were living in a hotel with no kitchen and very little money you were there for us.
When  we did not want to take three kids into a quite dark restaurant we saw your arches.
When we could not read an entire menu you were there with your brightly colored pictures.
When it was cold and dark outside at 4:30 you had a small but effective indoor play area for kids.
When I had not eaten all day because I was trapped in a hotel room you were there with a Big Rosti.

In case your wondering it's a quarter ponder with Ementaler Cheese, bacon, crispy hash brown, and big Rosti sauce???? on a onion bun.

The Learning Curve

 

      Today the kids started their first day in the Dusseldorf International School, so they can become international citizens (that's the schools motto.) The kids start school everyday at 8:40. If you know me, you know this is a great thing as I have a small problem waking up in the morning. Even though I am overjoyed with this start time, there is one big negative to this set up. The kids do not get out of school until 3:40. It currently gets dark at 4:30 so the kids have less than an hour of daylight after they get out of school.
    So at 8:00 I woke them up and packed their lunches in cloth bags from Real. We ate breakfast in the hotel lobby and walked down the street to the school. I took their picture one block away so not to embarrass them (Elijah, said he would just die.) When we got to the front lobby the admissions officer walked each of them to their new classrooms, first Elijah, then Stella, and last but not least Oliver. They each walked in a little slow but no one looked back. I think they were glad not to spend the day in a hotel room.  Then it was time for my orientation. Another 3rd grade girl was starting the today in Stella's class. She came from Brazil a week ago. Her Father spoke English but her mother spoke only Portuguese, so she could not understand any of the orientation. She kept looking at her husband anxiously because he was leaving for work as soon as orientation was over and she would have to do everything else with out any use of language . The secretary kept telling her not to worry the school uses hands and feet to communicate, and they are used to working with all languages . This women could not speak to the teachers, the principal, nor the secretary.  She was more in the dark than I was. For the first time this week I could understand what was going on around me, the secretary was from England, the school nurse from Ireland. Sure they said trousers and kept telling me I looked cold, but I could understand it all. This women could not speak English or German. She had a very large learning curve, greater than mine! Just when you think "how can I do this," you meet someone whose challenges far out way your own and think "how are they going to this?"
   The Brightside is everyone seems to be in the same boat. The Brazilian couple live in our hotel and are also currently homeless and phoneless, just waiting on their air shipment to arrive. I also met an American from Ann Arbor Michigan. Her family arrived the day after us and they have been to Ikea an equal amount of times. 

-- The school nurse told me "slap cheek" was going around? what? am I the only one that has never heard of slap cheek? Chicken pox is also going around? because many places still do not vaccinate for it?

  

Silver Kettles

    I love how for breakfast they offer the kids hot chocolate in little silver kettles. Although very different, breakfast is delicious with different kinds of cheeses, deli meats, and breads. Instead of jelly's they offer plum spread, nutella and honey. I will be sending my dad some plume spread! They also bring my coffee in a little silver kettle and its incredible strong and bitter. Not the usual syrupy latte I love, but still coffee. My kids say that if I don't get my coffee the momster comes out!

HedgeHog Home

Since Michael told the kids that hedgehogs are indigenous to this area they have been working out a plan to catch one. First they built a home for the little critter in our new back yard with some "spare" bricks they found laying around. Then they begged for cat food at the store, Eli read online they love cat food!!.......... and now they wait in anticipation. If we get to the house at night they run upstairs for a flashlight and try to ambush the poor little animals............nothing so far, but when that day comes it will be glorious!

Dinner

     Pizza sounded like a good idea... until I realized I had to order it. Michael drove the monster van to downtown Kaiserswerth so I could hop out at a local pizzeria. One again I asked the owner if she spoke English "nein"... that's OK I'll order in German! After several people walked in front of me I ordered, I did very well or at least she understood me. One Margarita and two large salamis for a grand total of 15.50 euros. So then I waited as she rolled out the dough, put the toppings on, and stuck them in a tiny oven. The only problem was she kept talking to other people about the Americano... clearly I understand enough to know she was talking about me. I just had no idea what else she was saying about the Americao, which made me feel very "small." That's OK I thought, I am a grown up and I have to get used to our new world and all that I don't understand. I paid, I smiled, and I took our Americano dinner for five. Which we then ate as our very first meal in our new home.

Getting there is half the fun..Right?

     We began our journey in Baton Rouge Louisiana on New Year's day. We rented two cars from the airport and drove to Houston, almost 5 hours in pouring rain. After arriving at the airport we proceeded to drag 3 kids, 13 bags, and a car seat to the check in while Elijah grumbled that me and Michael clearly did not know what we were doing. We made quite the spectacle of ourselves going through security at the airport, it only took us like 12 overflowing plastic bins in a row. Stella had been pretty nervous to go through the full body scanner, but after all the build up they did not make me or any of the kids go through, or take their shoes off. However, they did rummage through two of our bags, one because I had accidentally stuck a rogue butter knife in one (my bad) and the other because Elijah had apparently loaded up on rocks his cousin had given him as a send off gift in Baton Rouge. The lady in security looked at him and said "honey you got rocks in this bag" and he answered almost crying "just one my cousin gave me."

    After all that excitement we hung out in the United lounge for a bit for some free food and internet and (to the kids skewed view of airport travel) then we boarded the plane for the kids first plane ride ever.... that just happened to be 10 hours long. The kids were excited and everyone else in first class was either smiling or grimacing at their rather evident joy, but apparently the pilots in the cockpit could hear this joy and invited all of them to have a look at the cockpit and sit in the pilot seat. They got to press a few buttons and wear the captains hat, it was all over the top and did nothing to calm them down. After getting them settled, we showed them how to work the entertainment center and it was all down hill from there. Elijah sat in the middle on his own and did great. He even managed to order a cup of coffee without my knowledge. They ate their 5 course meal and I even over heard a flight attendant say to another " what polite children they are"( in a British accent). Yay! I almost didn't think they had it in them. Everyone went to sleep after dinner (except me, thanks to my fear of turbulence.) We awoke to breakfast and daylight and thankfully a smooth landing. The kids walked off the place to discover they could see their breath...German Dragon's Breath. Then it was another marathon though customs and baggage claim... good times :) We stood at the wrong baggage claim ...blah blah blah.

      We rented the largest van we could, so we did not have to tie our suitcases to the roof. Apparently that means a black Mercedes van that looks like we should either start an electric company, do some sheet rocking, or abduct some children. Unfortunately it was a standard and after loading all 13 bags Michael ran it into a wall. Yes you read that right, he ran it into the wall ! He could not get it into reverse and gassed slightly to much. Thankfully no one was in the garage so he put it in neutral and pushed it backwards. While the kids slept in the van Michael went back to the rental car agency to get yet another van... an automatic, 2 hours later we were on our way to the hotel in Kaiserswerth. We stopped at the German walmart (Real) for some snacks and to show the kids they still have normal stuff in stores; DS games, toys, etc.. they were very pleased with what they found. Finally, hours behind schedule we drove to the hotel, only to find the doors locked.  We rang the bell and tried to call a number on the door, but nothing. We were exhausted and had no where to sleep. We walked to the closest restaurant and said "Sprechen Sie English" the owner helped us call another number to a sister hotel 10 miles away in Ratingen. We set off yet again! The hotel was easy enough to find and we made a meal of sandwiches from Real supplies .... and finally 24 hours later sleep............